The Secret of the Ghost Author

Growing up, my favorite stories were the Nancy Drew mysteries.

I devoured each mystery and I, like many other girls, thought they had a special knack for solving mysteries like Nancy.

I even went so far as to leave written clues about some made-up mystery on small pieces of paper that I slipped into the ceiling moldings of my bedroom in the house were I grew up before we moved to a new house.

And why am I telling you this? Because perhaps my fascination with the Nancy Drew mysteries laid the foundation for the writing career I have today. But one thing always bothered me. How could Carolyn Keene have written the first book, The Mystery in the Old Clock in 1930 and still be alive to write Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland in 2003?

GET A CLUE!!!!

She didn’t. Carolyn Keene wasn’t one person. She was a pseudonym used by many hired authors over the years. These work for hire authors were ghostwriters.

A ghostwriter is a writer who writes books credited to another person.

Celebrities, politicians, and sports often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit written material, which will bear the celebrities name.

Ghostwriters are also hired to write fiction in the style of an existing author, often as a way of increasing the number of books that can be published by a popular author. Hence, Carolyn Keene.

Known popular authors who used ghostwriters:

Tom Clancy

V.C. Andrews

Robert Ludlum

James Patterson

Next up in the Author's ABC's…………. HOOK and HERO's JOURNEY